South Florida posts low turnout in gubernatorial vote

November 3, 2010|By Scott Wyman, Sun Sentinel

The Republican tsunami in Tuesday's election was intensified by a low turnout among the Democratic strongholds of South Florida.

It was the worst turnout for a gubernatorial election in at least 12 years in both Broward and Palm Beach counties. Only one other county in the state posted a worse turnout than Broward, where just under 40 percent of registered voters went to the polls. Turnout in Palm Beach was 46 percent, but that's still lower than the rest of Florida.

Those anemic numbers helped doom Democratic campaigns from Alex Sink's bid for governor to Ron Klein's push for a third term in Congress.

"This is still a Democratic area, and this was not an exciting election for Democrats," said Jim Kane, editor of the Florida Voter newsletter. "They went into this with everyone saying they were going to lose many of the key races, and you usually get higher turnout only when people believe elections are going to be competitive."

Both Republican and Democratic strategists say the turnout is proof of the enthusiasm gap predicted nationally for the middle of President Obama's term in the White House. The area's smaller Republican population was more fired up to vote than their Democratic neighbors.

Precinct-by-precinct data is not yet available in Palm Beach, but Broward's data shows heavy turnout in Republican areas on the east side of the county. More than 50 percent of registered voters cast ballots at such locations as John Knox Village in Pompano Beach, Saint Sebastian Church in Fort Lauderdale and Assumption Catholic Church in Lauderdale-by-the Sea.

"A lot of people were unhappy, and it was more of an anti-Obama message than anything else," said Kevin Tynan, a former chairman of Broward's Republican Party. "They weren't happy with the way things were going in the country and wanted change."

Meanwhile, turnout in precincts with a substantial number of black voters averaged less than the rest of the county. Less than a third of registered voters cast ballots at precincts at Franklin and Develoe parks in Fort Lauderdale.

The turnout particularly affected the governor's race between Republican Rick Scott and Sink, a Democrat.

Sink carried Broward by 130,000 votes but lost to Scott by 68,000 votes statewide — 49 percent to 48 percent. Republican leaders believe that to win statewide races they must hold the Democratic margin of victory in Broward to less than 140,000 votes.

The light voting among Democrats is prompting finger-pointing and concern within the party over what happened.

Mitch Ceasar, Broward's Democratic chairman, said Sink did better in Broward than elsewhere in the state. He stood behind a get-out-the-vote effort that included phone banks, palm cards and the tracking of absentee ballots.

Ceasar predicts 2010 is an anomaly and that turnout will return to previous levels in future elections. "This was a very tough headwind to deal with," he said.

But Robin Rorapaugh, a Democratic strategist and Ceasar critic, and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D- Miramar, said there were missed opportunities.

Rorapaugh charged that the GOP has a much more structured effort to push voting and that the Democrats have lost their edge since the 1990s. Hastings said he warned Democratic leaders at all levels that they needed to commit more resources to a ground operation in South Florida and predicts that this year's problems will reverberate in the 2012 presidential election.

"It is the failing of the Democratic Party and the candidates not to observe that the votes are here for the asking, but you need to ask for them," Hastings said. "You can't wait until two weeks before the election to turn voters on and turn them out. My overall assessment is Democrats are going to have to do significantly more to get their act together."